AWB Chapter 1875 Chess Pieces
Chapter 1875 Chess Pieces
Hongluo Temple?
As Li Xiangnan gripped the microphone, his heart tightened, his sleepiness vanished instantly, and a chill ran down his spine.
This name unexpectedly opened a corner of his memory!
Although he had heard of the fame of Hongluo Temple, he had only visited it once in reality, and that was the only time.
That was Shangguan Wanqing, who had been identified not long ago in connection with the Mu family bombing case. After making contact with her, she left a note asking to meet at Hongluo Temple.
During his several encounters with Shangguan Wanqing, Li Xiangnan unexpectedly learned that the Shangguan family had been researching the Li family. In order to obtain more information, he gladly accepted the invitation.
When the appointed time and place arrived, at the Hongluo Temple, a popular temple near Yanjing known for its efficacious prayers for children, Shangguan Wanqing waited all day until the evening drum sounded, but she still did not appear.
Afterwards, in order to find out what had happened to her, he personally went to the Shangguan family...
This is the location of Hongluo Temple during the Shangguan incident!
Now, the plot to destroy his hospital, even at the cost of the health of hundreds or thousands of children, has its mission handover point at Hongluo Temple!
Is this just a coincidence?
Li Xiangnan's heart began to pound violently, a strong intuition assaulting his reason!
This matter is very likely related to the Shangguan family!
The image of Shangguan Wuji's seemingly dignified but actually unfathomable and sinister face appeared in his mind!
Could it be that the "master" Sun Qisheng mentioned, the one who instructed Hong Jinshui to switch the hospital's penicillin, is Shangguan Wuji?
“Defa,” Li Xiangnan’s voice was more solemn than ever before, “You just said that Zhao Laogen told them to receive the mission at Hongluo Temple. What exactly happened? Did you get any more specific information, such as whether you met the Master? What are his characteristics? How did you make contact? Tell me everything you know, without missing a single word!”
Wang Defa on the other end of the phone seemed startled by Li Xiangnan's urgent tone. He paused for a moment and quickly advised, "Xiangnan, don't panic. I called to tell you about this. According to Zhao Laogen and Wu Laosi, they have never seen that so-called Mr., and they don't even know if he is a man, a woman, a human, or a ghost!"
"Hmm?" Li Xiangnan frowned. "What do you mean? How did they accept the mission?"
"According to them, a street thug suddenly stopped them on their way home from get off work one day and asked them if they wanted to do a big heist. The two asked about the reward, and the thug said he would give them fifty yuan to help them exchange some things. The two immediately got excited!"
"But when the street thugs asked them to come to your place and replace the penicillin, they both refused! They were originally employees of Sun Qisheng's pharmaceutical factory and knew the price Sun Qisheng would pay you for dealing with you, so they demanded more money. Naturally, the street thugs disagreed and said they would find someone else!"
"When the two men heard that such a cheap deal was going to fall through, they turned around and threatened the street urchin, saying that if he didn't pay more, they would tell him about it later. The street urchin had no choice but to say that he was just a middleman! So he led the two men up the mountain and into the temple, where they retrieved a task slip from under the table in a pavilion!"
"When the two saw the reward for the task, they found it was 500 yuan. They beat up the street thug, and after interrogating him, they threatened him for the remaining 200 yuan before letting him go. Then they started doing the middleman task themselves!"
Two days later, they arrived at the eighth crooked tree at the release pond behind Hongluo Temple at the agreed time. There they found an oilcloth bag weighed down by a stone in the weeds under the tree! Inside the bag was a letter that detailed the mission: to switch a designated batch of penicillin and, after the mission was accomplished, to deliver the real medicine to a designated location!
"The package also contained some deposit money, all in old 'Da Zhuan' notes, but they were new and had no fingerprints on them! The letter said that if the matter was completed, there would be an additional 500 yuan reward, and someone would contact them and leave it on their windowsill!"
As Li Xiangnan listened to Wang Defa's account, a chill ran through him.
What a cunning tactic!
The entire process is conducted without human contact, utilizing public spaces and inanimate objects to transmit instructions, maximizing the severing of all direct connections, and even going so far as to have multiple intermediaries.
This gentleman was not only meticulous, but also had a keen understanding of human nature and the mentality of street urchins. More importantly, he seemed to be very familiar with the geography of Hongluo Temple.
"Have these people taken over Mr. Li's work before?" Li Xiangnan asked immediately.
"Zhao Laogen said this was the first time. They were greedy for the high reward and thought that it was just switching medicines, so the risk was not high. So they found Hong Jinshui, a neighbor who worked at our hospital. They were all acquaintances, so they took the risk! Following the instructions, they took the real medicine from our hospital in two batches and secretly put it in the designated trash can outside the dining hall!"
"Trash cans?" Li Xiangnan frowned and repeated. It was indeed a very hidden and convenient way to take things. "Has Captain Guo checked the trash cans?"
“We checked, they sent people up the mountain before dawn!” Wang Defa’s tone was tinged with frustration. “The temple had already emptied the trash cans, and they went to the release pond, but there were no valuable clues there! The oilcloth package and the letter were also burned as instructed!”
clean!
So clean!
Li Xiangnan took a deep breath.
This man is like a ghost, using cannon fodder like Hong Jinshui, Zhao Laogen, and Wu Laosi to carry out a fatal attack, while he himself remains hidden in layers of mist, leaving no trace.
This is a cunning fellow.
Even though Li Xiangnan has captured the pieces to execute, he hasn't even touched the hem of his opponent's clothes.
"Defa, you've worked hard!" Li Xiangnan forced himself to calm down. "Go back to sleep. I'll call Captain Guo!"
After hanging up the phone, Li Xiangnan did not hesitate and immediately dialed Guo Qian's number.
"Captain Guo, it's me!"
"So early? You didn't sleep last night, did you?" Guo Qian's voice carried the fatigue of staying up all night and the gravity of the case reaching a stalemate. He quickly said, "De Fa should have told you the details, right? The mastermind behind this is a veteran, leaving no room for error! Our comrades went to the scene and can basically confirm that the other party has a very strong counter-surveillance awareness!"
“Captain Guo, I have a feeling this gentleman is much more difficult to deal with than we anticipated!” Li Xiangnan said in a deep voice, “His choice of Hongluo Temple was definitely not intentional! There are many worshippers there, the population is diverse and highly mobile, making it easy to hide and escape. Moreover, his use of this one-way, non-contact method of command transmission clearly indicates that he anticipated we might follow the trail!”
“That’s right!” Guo Qian agreed. “We’ve already had a meeting and decided to deploy personnel and closely monitor Hongluo Temple, especially the release pond and dining hall areas. At the same time, we will also register the people in the temple, especially the worshippers, and investigate the vendors coming and going! However… Xiang Nan, you know that place is too famous, and the daily flow of people is astonishing. I’m afraid we won’t get any results anytime soon. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
"I understand!" Li Xiangnan nodded. This was especially true given the limited resources available for criminal investigation in the 1980s, making it even more difficult. Facing such a formidable opponent, the challenge was naturally immense. "Captain Guo, thank you for your trouble! Please inform me immediately of any discoveries!"
"Don't worry, Consultant Li!"
After hanging up the phone, Li Xiangnan sat down on the sofa.
The morning light streamed through the window, casting interplay of light and shadow on his face.
Hong Jinshui, Zhao Laogen, and Wu Laosi are all pawns that can be discarded at will.
The true generals and commanders are still sitting calmly on the other side of the chessboard deep in the fog, watching him with a cold smile!
Hongluo Temple...Shangguan Family...
These two words kept swirling and colliding in his mind.
Did Shangguan Wuji finally lose patience and choose to take action against himself?
Or are other forces stirring up trouble, directing the blame at the Shangguan family, and making us suspicious?
Or perhaps, this is just a smokescreen created by the gentleman, just like his strategy against Sun Qisheng, a mix of truth and falsehood?
There are currently no clues to these answers...
It seems necessary to make another trip to Hongluo Temple or the Shangguan family!